A Lonely Place
Drifting grey clouds that, for once, do not imply obscure presages but seem to perfectly fit in the momentary lapse of consciousness that one experiences while not exactly concentrated on something. This is the principal sensation that listening to this album causes. "A lonely place" sounds warm in a way, putting us at a complete ease through a long sequence of morphing resonances and wavering drones. Ian Holloway has by now shown to all the hungry experts of the dark ambient scene that he is for real: the consistency of this artist’s presentations is tangible and I can’t remember ever having thought about any of his CDs as not satisfactory. Impossible to say what Holloway used for this 38-minute piece, as the sources could very well be potentially compared to whatever can be subjected to alteration by heavy processing - wind to motors, didjeridoo to voices. Keyboards, guitars maybe? Heaven knows. The fact is that the outcome is next to splendid, an electronic release that definitely doesn’t weigh on the listener’s patience. It’s a perfect example of that kind of sound art that does not actually "invent", yet is so beautifully made that we just don’t need anything else to feel good. And good I felt throughout the whole program. Another high mark for Quiet World’s boss. - Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes
Gauges what lies behind the precipice: Holloway transforms shapeless allusions into emotional forms.
In my opinion, there are a lot of musicians out there who could learn a bit from Ian Holloway. Founder of the now defunt Elvis Coffee label, running the new Quiet World imprint, releasing under the Psychic Space Invasion moniker and, slightly more recently, under his real name as well as publishing reviews of some of his favourite artists in the wonderful Wonderful Wooden Reasons WebZine, Holloway is the kind of artist who only publishes music when he really feels he has something to say and produces it in quantities that display both his appreciation for the collector's aspect of experimental music and a realistic estimation of his tracks' chances of entering the UK charts any time soon.
In short, Holloway is the epitomisation of a genuinely honest composer. Of course, he craves for feedback, for recognition and, ultimately, for selling a few copies of his albums. But never ever does one get the impression that he could ever find himself in the situation of cluttering online stores with his releases, simply because he could. "A lonely place" is a great case in point, all the way from digging out the CD from the heavy-paper fold-out package, which opens into a psychedelic redly orange skyscape lit by a delirious sun, to listening to the music contained within.
Compared to predecessor "Walking on Fireflies", "A lonely place" is much more of a drastic and experimental offering. While the former's pieces were concise, poignant, melodic and filled with a romantic desire of undoing the past (essentially, this was an electronic requiem for a friend), the latter's single, 38-minute piece gauges what lies behind the precipice: A vortex-like fall from great heights into an uncertain void, filled with whispering sheets of scraping sound, barely touching the borders of audibility and suggesting there could be more hidden in its silent rump, like the hidden body of the floe that hit the Titanic.
Essentially, then, this is a drone work – and, quite frankly, one of frightening proportions and haunting intensity. There are artists who have gone down a similar path over the last couple of months – Jan-M Iversen springs to mind, with his terrifying "Drone 1.05" on Triple Bath- and yet, Holloway's language here extends beyond that of his colleagues, aiming for an expressiveness capable of transforming these shapeless allusions into concrete and emotional forms, of rendering its dark clay into a malleable musical substance.
This musicality is why "A lonely place" is not just timbre and vague harmony, but a composition with a distinct arrangement, with moments of beauty and of horror, of tension and relaxation, of inhaling and exhaling. After its gradual ascent to a solid state of threedimensional plasticity, it moulds its tonal threads into warm clouds, dissolving into cold Wah-Wah stutters and icey ambiances. Towards the end, the piece seems to build into a comforting finale before opting to slowly die down instead like a candle in an otherwhise empty cellar, fading out with a couple of loosely strummed guitar strings.
Needless to say this album is highly limited and all but unavailable already. In a suprising proposition, however, Ian Holloway has announced that his sold-out items can be downloaded for free from the Quiet World webpage. It is another move which shows his love for the arts, rather than to the business aspect of producing music - and an honesty others could greatly benefit from as well. - Tobias Fischer, Tokafi
Earlier in 2008, we received a fantastic collaborative project from Darren Tate, Ian Holloway, and Banks Bailey. At the time, we were well acquainted with the work of Darren Tate, thanks to his ongoing British drone eccentricities as Monos and his former Ora project with Andrew Chalk, Colin Potter, and others; but Ian Holloway and Banks Bailey were two whose work we didn't know anything about. Thanks to a suggestion from a long time customer here at the shop, we looked into the solo projects from Mr. Holloway; and damn if that tip didn't pay off with this fantastic cd-r (with more to come from Holloway in the coming weeks!). Self-released in a tiny edition of 50 copies, A Lonely Place is a breathtaking composition for time-stop dronemusik, achieving a similar stasis and similar dark beauty as Andrew Chalk did on his masterpiece East Of The Sun. It's hard to say what Holloway used as a source material for the album -- maybe guitar, maybe long-thin wire constructions, maybe field recordings, or maybe not. Like plenty of dronemusik before, it's the production that guides Holloway's success, as his deft manipulation of acoustics and electronics generates smoke, fog, and mirrors through sound that result in this amazing piece of long-form drone-smear. There's billowing swells of deep architectural space. Kosmiche electronics, rasping gong tones stretched toward infinity, and subharmonic thrumb swaddled in soft focus reverb. Think Expo '70 gone ashen black or Aidan Baker's ambient work at his most somber. Altogether wonderful, altogether very limited. - Aquarius Records
Ian Holloway’s aural signature is a dark ambience more windswept than processed. In their immanence and immediacy, the works are generally closed to the listener, and their full, uninterrupted flow draws out an intimacy that keeps vigil in us.
Certainly there are separations, limits, attractive and repellant phenomena that arrive and traverse the sound field, creating diverse situations, but an awareness of the situation as such never appears to surface. More often than not, there is simply a dim, droning halo of sound, characterized by a fleet evocativeness and slight changes in momentum and breadth, all of which are achieved with some dexterity.
Regardless, one doesn’t simply sink into the proceedings. The sound is warm, but also ambiguous, with particular places especially marked by opaque aggregates that inspire some trepidation. In rare, well-timed moments, additional layers create a jarring sense of depth and perspective; and as the odd field recording gleams through the material, elements of the profane world do subtle yet strange violence to the long-form sustained tonalities. - Max Schaefer, Cyclic Defrost
On Holloway's solo release 'A Lonely Place' he continues his previous releases of drone music, but here too a small shift can be noted. Holloway plays guitar here and mixes them with manipulated sounds thereof into a single piece of thirty-nine minutes of music. Here too a certain element of improvisation seems to leap it, making this is a little bit - but only marginally I'd say - different than the other work that is available under the banner of 'ambient drone' music, even when this comes closer to it than the release with Tate and Banks. Certainly it seems to me that Holloway is somebody who looks beyond the horizon and is eager to make small but necessary changes in ambient drone music - and it's about time, I'd say. - FdW, Vital
Equally as intense but in a more laidback fashion, the edge of the universe drone of “A Lonely Place” is one slowly drifting piece that envelopes the listener in its unearthly beauty, relaxing yet energising. Possibly music for meditation, this is a single heartbeat slowed to 38 minutes, awash with possibilities yet, ultimately, as still as a single tear. Created by the always listenable Ian Holloway, this is another worthy release from Quiet World, the cover of which is as Zen-like as the sounds. - Simon Lewis, Rumbles.
